At its core, the political battle for transparency about the herbicide glyphosate is actually a battle for independent science and for the transparent and democratic functioning of the EU institutions, write five Greens/EFA MEPs

As safety watchdogs battle over just how toxic and dangerous Monsanto’s controversial weed-killer glyphosate actually is, the even more toxic half-brother from Bayer, glufosinate, is making a timely return, warns Mute Schimpf.

With trust in our institutions ebbing away, people are becoming more likely to accept the provenance of information than they are the accuracy of the facts. Graeme Taylor suggests four ways industry can re-ignite trust in science.

As the world focuses elsewhere, two untested varieties of genetically modified maize are slowly manoeuvring their way through the legislative hoops of the European institutions towards Europe’s fields, writes Mute Schimpf.

In the minds of many, soil is simply dirt, but without it we would all cease to exist. Unlike the water we drink and the air we breathe, soil is not protected in the EU and its quality is getting worse. This has to change, writes Balázs Horváth.

European Commission draft rules to identify and ultimately ban endocrine disrupters are illegal because they clash with existing pesticide and biocide regulations, Alice Bernard writes. The environmental lawyer warned that EU judges could throw out the changes to the long-awaited scientific criteria for the chemicals.